Exercises + Written explanation: learnamo.com/cibo-italiano-pi...
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Are you ready for today’s lesson? No books! You’ll only need 3 tools: a fork, a knife and a spoon! In this lesson you are going to learn the 20 most delicious dishes in Italy! 🙂
TORTELLINI → Emilia Romagna
Tortellini are a kind of pasta stuffed with ham, mushrooms or meat and are great with broth or ragu. But do you know why they have this form? The legend goes that in 1200 a young and beautiful woman decides to stay in a inn during the night and the inn owner, attracted by her beauty, stops outside her room to spy her through they keyhole. What strikes him most is her belly button! So, when he begins to make the dinner, mindful of her belly button, he decides to create a type of pasta similar to it and with meat inside! Interesting, isn’t it?
CARBONARA → Lazio
Are you going to spend your weekend in the Italian capital? If you visit Rome, you can’t miss carbonara! Eggs and jowl bacon are the main ingredients together with pecorino cheese and pepper. Don’t trust the imitations: the original one doesn’t have cream, nor onion, garlic, or butter!
PIZZA → Campania
If you want to respect Italian traditions, you have to try the original pizza, characterized by the three colors of the Italian flag: red as the tomato, while as the mozzarella cheese and green as the basil! We call it Margherita!
In any case, there are various types of pizza, each one has its own ingredients, but, please, don’t ask for Hawaiian pizza… Italians don’t quite like it!
ORECCHIETTE E RAPE → Puglia
It’s a mix of goodness, simplicity and lightness: the turnips, a vegetable, are associated with a handmade pasta which reminds us of small ears, that’s why they are called “orecchiette”! In 1500, the ability to make “recchjtedd” was considered a sort of woman’s dowry.
ARANCINI → Sicilia
If you are going to Sicily, you have to try arancini: fried rice balls with ragu, peas and cheese! By the way, there is also an ancient dispute surrounding the name of this dish: arancino o arancina? Masculine or femminine? The answer depends on the city and the shape: near Palermo people call them “arancine” (femminine) and they have a round shape, which reminds us of an orange. However, near Catania, and in dictionaries as well, they are called “arancini” (masculine) and have a drip-like shape.
ARROSTICINI → Abruzzo
Arrosticini are a sheep meat second dish! The meat is cut in small slices and roasted, that’s why they are called “arrosticini”! The legends goes that in 1930s two shepherds had a old sheep whose meat was too hard to eat, so they decided to cut it in small pieces to make it easier to eat.
TROFIE CON PESTO ALLA GENOVESE → Liguria
Liguria, in particular Genova, is well known for its “pesto”, which is a sort of sauce made of basin, pine nut, olive oil and garlic. You must eat it with a kind of pasta known as “trofie, typical of this region: its shape reminds us of a “corkscrew”. Some people consider this past as the poorer version of “gnocchi” because they are simply made of water and flour.
POLENTA CONCIA → Valle d’Aosta
This dish originates from the union of two typical products in this region: polenta (boiled cornmeal) and fontina cheese! Polenta, mixed with fontina cheese, is perfect to keep you warm in the long and cold Alpine nights.
RISI E BISI → Veneto
This was a traditional dish in the Serenissima Repubblica di Venezia: it was given to the Doge during San Marcos’s day, the 25 of April. The main ingredients? As the name suggests, “risi”, that is rice, and “bisi”, that is peas.
CANEDERLI → Trentino - Alto Adige
Canederli are an extremely famous dish in Trentino-Alto Adige, but their name derives from German, in particular from Bavaria, where they are called Knödel. They are small balls made of bread and other ingredients which can vary from area to area, but they usually are speck, cheese, milk and chive.
BAGNA CAUDA → Piemonte
It’s a condiment made of garlic, olive oil and anchovy served with both raw and cooked vegetables. This Piemontese traditional dish dates back to Middle ages, when peasants used to make this dish to find relief from cold and starvation.
PANE FRATTAU → Sardegna
This very peculiar dish is made of crispy slices of pane Carasau (typical Sardinian bread) are mixed with tomato and pecorino cheese sauce. At the end, they put an egg cooked in sheep broth.
LAGANE E CECI → Basilicata
It’s an ancient recipe, handed down from generation to generation. Lagane are a type of pasta similiar to tagliatelle, but much larger, around 2-3 cm. Together with chickpeas and tomato sauce, they are perfect during a cold winter night.